The economy: workers
Great changes occurred in agriculture, which made it more efficient but at the same time many people were forced to leave the land.
As a result of new farming methods fields where traditionally everyone in the community had been able to graze their animals were fenced off as private plots.
The arrival of the railways in the middle of the century meant that grain could be imported cheaply. As a result, farmers switched to more lucrative and less labour-intensive areas, like dairy farming. Thousands of landless labourers were forced to look for employment elsewhere, and migrated to the towns and their factories - or emigrated.
Around 1850 nearly 60% of the Swiss population worked in agriculture, but by 1888 the figure had fallen to 36% and by 1914 it was 25%. Only Britain had a lower proportion of agricultural workers.
"The poor are not there to enable others to make wealth out of their lifeblood."
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1859
"For years our children have worked for 14 hours a day in the factories here ... and this has not prevented them from staying healthy, and indeed from growing tall and strong. Let us not forget that if men want to enjoy the good things of life, they have to exert the kind of effort without which life is impossible ... The law wants to reduce factory hours yet further, but what will they do with their free time other than waste it in foolishness ..? And what will be the result for the parents of these children? They will simply get less money."
The school commission of the commune of Töss, 1858, reacting to a proposal by the educational authorities of canton Zürich to limit the working day to 12 hours for children under 16.